It would be time to travel home soon. The sunny warmth of fall in these southlands was beautiful, so colourful and nearly overwhelming to all the senses. Rilana felt she could spend years wandering those verdant, fragrant woods, learning the secrets of many new animals, but the events of the tournament had left her shaken as well as injured. The moon fey was always pale, but as she stood in the shadow of a huge oak tree speaking to a man leading a mule and cart, her silvery hair lacked its usual opalescent luster, and there was a faint shadow under her striking azure gaze. 

[b]"So you're from Frigmount, eh?"[/b] the man asked, and Rilana offered a hesitant nod. That she was a fey was impossible to hide, and she didn't want to lie, but being so far from home was starting to wear on her nerves. But the man with the cart full of birds, his long limbs and hunched back reminding her of a scarecrow, was so animated and kind that her pink lips curved up into a smile.

[color=00aeef]"That's right. I work with birds a bit too, though there aren't many raptors in the Frostfell. My favourite is the snow owl."[/color]

[b]"Ah, the white owl. What I wouldn't give to see one of those pale beauties."[/b] He turned to reach through the window of the cart and after a moment of jiggling, pulled an enormous tuft-eared owl out of the dark interior. The motion set a collection of carved amulets around the man's neck clanking together with a musical woody clatter, and Rilana realized that she was seeing a huge collection of effigies, each beak and feather carved in excrutiating detail. The aged man obviously had an affinity for avians. 

[b]"This is Fleck. Not my smartest bird, but he holds a special place in my heart. He's a horned owl."[/b] It's head swiveled to look at Rilana, each orange eye blinking one at a time, and it puffed its striped neck feathers up almost arrogantly. 

[color=00aeef]"He's beautiful!"[/color] Rilana gasped earnestly, resisting the urge to lift her arm. Unlike the bird man, she wasn't wearing a leather glove to protect herself from the inevitable lacerations of talons. 

[color=fff200]"Beautiful! Bah-ah-ah!"[/color] A raspy, mocking tone came from inside the cart and Rilana turned curiously to look for the source of the laughing voice. There were many birds inside the cart, some tethered to perches by their jesses, some in cages, some appearing to simple roost inside of their own accord. It was impossible to tell at a glance which of the dark shapes were the bird-man's Familiars and which were simply trained. 

[b]"Oh, don't mind her. She likes to cause trouble,"[/b] the man said, replacing the owl back onto his perch. "I've tried every trick I know to get her sold but she just keeps coming back."

[color=fff200]"Trouble. Double trouble! Beautiful trouble. Ba-ha-bawk!"[/color]

Rilana found herself looking into a round beady blue eye above a long white beak. Not a raptor of any kind, she realized. And a moment later she forgave herself for not recognizing the species because instead of the typical glossy blue-black, the raven was stark white with only a bit of silver under her wings and breast. 

[color=00aeef]"Oh my! I've never seen a white raven before. She's lovely. Is she one of your...one of [i]yours[/i]?"[/color] Rilana barely stopped herself from speaking too loudly to the man about their shared gift of Familiary, having come to understand that in these southern lands magics of all kinds were treated with much more suspicion and fear than they were in Frigmount, and she wondered if it had something to do with the strange cut-offness the ice capital seemed to have been suffering. 

The moon fey didn't hesitate this time, and when she reached out towards the bird it hopped from the small counter onto her wrist, cocking her head to look up at the woman. 

[color=fff200]"Never seen -bawk- lovely."[/color]

[b]"Not one of mine,"[/b] the bird-man replied, watching as the raven hopped up to Rilana's shoulder and pecked experimentally at the intricate silver circlet on her brow. Rilana raised a hand to stop the bird and she quickly fluttered up from her shoulder only to land on it again as soon as Rilana lowered her hand.

[color=00aeef]"Now you stop that,"[/color] the moon fey instructed, squinting at the bird out of the corner of her eye.

[color=fff200]"Stop. No [i]you[/i] stop."[/color] They glared at each other for a moment, but the raven looked away first, tucking her head back to preen herself casually. Rilana gave a firm nod. 

[b]"I think I'll be heading back to Silent Rise with an empty perch,"[/b] the bird-man grinned, reaching over to close the wooden flap across the window of the cart. 

Rilana's silvery brows furrowed as the man's meaning escaped her, but when she understood that he meant her to take the raven she shook her head, alarmed. [color=00aeef]"Oh no, I couldn't possibly buy her from you..."[/color] she reached up to try to scoop the bird from her shoulder, but it deftly avoided her fingers, hopping from one shoulder to the other or hovering just out of reach.

The bird-man laughed, lifting a skinny leg to slap a knobbly knee. [b]"Don't worry about it, my beauty, I've done sold her twice and she came back. Most like she'll come back again, but if she doesn't it'd set my mind well to know she's with you."[/b]

Rilana smiled, her pale cheeks flushing slightly at the vote of confidence from the stranger, biting her bottom lip as she glanced at the bird on her shoulder. [color=00aeef]"In that case, if she decides to stick with me I'll treat her as well as I can."[/color] 

She chatted with the bird-man for a few moments more as he readied his cart, speaking in quiet tones and insinuations about the magic of Familiary. They even walked together for a time until their paths parted. Doctoring herself after the fight with the thing had depleted Rilana's medicine bag some, and she wanted to stop at the market for some fresh supplies. She had also decided to splurge a little and get herself some honey, a rare delicacy in the Frostfell.

She passed by the livestock and came upon the dog kennels, her steps slowing with curiosity. Some breeds she recognized, others, primarily the ones with short coats that wouldn't do well in the north, she did not. But the name of the breed meant little against how much the druid could know just by looking.

With the muttering of the raven in her ear, she looked at the soulful eyes of large, heavy-coated livestock guardians, and she noted the piercing watchfulness of guard breeds, the frenzied energy of vermin-hunters, and the rangy loping gait of hounds. She was eyeing a couple of the grown Ebon Brutes, one of her brows quirked dubiously, and happened to overhear Trix and the dog breeder. His tone, in addition to the obvious untruth of his words, rang falsely in her ears. The Druid could see with her own eyes that these large, dark dogs were behaving like feral mongrels. They had a frantic energy that promised destruction and countless time spent in fruitless training. Even the adults squabbled and snapped, and they had a slow stupid bark that Rilana instantly hated.

The slender moon fey eyed Trix as she fished into her money-purse, trying to decide if she had any place to intervene. Had she been in her own city she wouldn't have hesitated, but who knew how these warmlanders would react?

It was the outrageous asking price that made up her mind, and deciding to take the risk of being dismissed for delving into someone else's business, she reached out to put a cool, gentle hand on Trix's arm.

[color=00aeef]"Please,"[/color] she began, her foreign accent obvious from the start, her tone calm but with a note of urgency as she looked down at the shorter woman. [color=00aeef]"Can I speak with you for a moment? I think you're making a mistake."[/color]